Marilyn Duncan
CEO Brimbank City Council
Municipal Offices
Alexandra Ave
Sunshine, Vic., 3020

2 June 2005
Dear Marilyn,
Re: Intimidation at Council Meetings
I am writing to you on behalf of the Sunshine Residents and Ratepayers Association (SunRRA) members. We would like to lodge a formal complaint regarding Council meeting procedures and security.

I and many of our members who attended a Brimbank Council meeting on 24/5/05 were shocked to witness a man whose behavior to an innocent female attendee was angry, rude, confrontational and abusive. In the end the innocent victim was forced to ask you, as CEO, for protection and to be escorted to her car.

The man believed the woman had said something untoward while many witnesses agreed that she did not say anything. In fact the lady who did say something tried to clarify this but the gentleman was angry beyond reason and would not hear of it.
It was disappointing to learn that the man in question is Mayor Natalie Suleyman's father. Even more disappointing is the news that he is a State Government Representative and employee who regularly attends Council meetings in that capacity with other similarly employed colleagues.

• We have a right to exist as an Association, and to not have the legitimacy of our existence questioned.

• We have a right to expect that our members will not be subjected to arbitrary interference of their privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon their honour and reputation (we have based this right on Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights).

• We have a right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media (we have based this right on Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights).

• We have a right to speak up about, and to highlight, inequities within our community through whatever legal means we have available to us.